Can you save with a veggie garden?

Now, that's a yield

Last year, Doiron and his wife painstakingly weighed "every peach, every strawberry, every leaf of lettuce" to measure their 1,600-square-foot garden's yield in cash, he says.

For a $250 investment of seeds and other supplies, Doiron says, they estimated their 2008 fully organic harvest was worth an impressive $2,149 (gauged by certain market prices).

Many members of the Women in Red are active gardeners, and some are definitely in it for the money. One reader said she couldn't afford to feed her family on store-bought groceries alone. Her garden is an important budget stretcher.

Women in Red member Megan Paterson says she enjoys a definite profit from her 400-square-foot garden.

During the eight months of the year that Paterson eats her own produce (starting in June, she can stop buying vegetables at stores, she says), she saves about $75 a month, or about $600 total.

Gains surpass cash

The trouble is, most gardening reports are subjective, and most amateur gardeners don't take into account the time and energy that go into it.

When it's your passion, you tend not to worry about the time spent. But when your time is tight, like mine, it's up to you to make sure you know what that point of diminishing returns is.

Paterson works full time and cares for ailing grandparents, so she invests time in her garden when she can. She doesn't believe in being a fanatic. "If I get busy, the garden suffers, but I don't stress myself out over it, and I still get plenty of food even if I have a messy garden."

Like most of the Women in Red gardeners, Paterson believes you get multiple benefits from gardening, and it's important to value them all.

"My garden is me time," she says -- a vital and often overlooked investment in quality of life, I would agree.

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Another big gain is that gardening can save you time, Paterson says, in terms of shopping and cooking. "I go to the store about once a month during the summer." The rest of the time, Paterson can pick ingredients from her garden, throw in some chicken or fish (or not) and enjoy healthful, delicious, inexpensive meals.

How to make your garden grow

This year, I'm trying to minimize my startup costs by using seeds -- not buying plants, which gets pricey. Thus far I've spent about $34 on a seed starter kit and organic seeds.

I will likely spend an additional $50 to $70 on topsoil and the wood for a garden bed.

To break even (based on supermarket produce prices in my area), I estimate my garden would have to successfully produce something like the following:

• 15 pounds of tomatoes at $1.99 a pound (about $30).

• Five bunches of basil at $2 a bunch ($10).

• Five bunches of cilantro at $2 a bunch ($10).

• 20 pounds of broccoli at $1.59 a pound (about $32).

• 10 pounds of cabbage at 69 cents a pound (about $7).

• 5 pounds of Brussels sprouts at $1.49 a pound (about $7.50).

• 10 pounds of onions at 79 cents a pound (about $8).

Honestly, it's hard to tell from here. What will the hidden expenses be? Will the treat of homegrown veggies feel like it's worth my time? Will my kid eat more broccoli?

I'm willing to get my hands dirty to find out.

Published April 8, 2009

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